What caused the Bhopal Gas tragedy? | Sankalp India Foundation What caused the Bhopal Gas tragedy? Submitted by aurora on Thu, 20/03/2008 - 08:13 On December 3rd, 1984, thousands of people in Bhopal, India, were gassed to death after a catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled of whom 22,000 or more have since died of their injuries - in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disasterMore than 27 tons of methylisocyanate & other deadly gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company designed the plant with “unproven” and “untested” technology, and cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money.Carbide is still killing in Bhopal. The chemicals that Carbide abandoned in and around their Bhopal factory have contaminated the drinking water of 20,000 people.

Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women living near the factory. Death came out of a clear sky. Midnight, a cold wind blowing, the stars brilliant as they are in central India, even through the thin pall of cooking-fire smoke that hung above the city. Here and there, braziers were burning to warm those who were obliged to be out late. From the factory which so many had learned to fear, a thin plume of white vapor began streaming from a high structure. Caught by the wind, it became a haze and blew downward to mix with smokes coming from somewhere nearer to the ground. A dense fog formed. Nudged by the wind, it rolled across the road and into the alleys on the other side. Here the houses were packed close, ill-built, with badly-fitting doors and windows. Those within were roused in darkness to the sound of screams with the gases already in their eyes, noses and throats. It burned terribly, it felt like fire. In those apocalyptic moments no one knew what was happening.

People simply started dying in the most hideous ways. Some vomited uncontrollably, went into convulsions and fell dead. Others choked to death, drowning in their own body fluids. Many were crushed in the stampedes through narrow gullies where street lamps burned a dim brown through clouds of gas. When dawn broke over the city, thousands of bodies lay in heaps in the streets. Even far from the factory, near the lake, at Rani Hira Pati ka Mahal the ground was so thick with dead that you could not avoid treading on them. The army dumped hundreds of bodies in the surrounding forests and the Betwa river was so choked with corpses that they formed log-jams against the arches of bridges. Families and entire communities were wiped out, leaving no one to identify them. How many thousands died, no one knows.Carbide says 3,800. Municipal workers who picked up bodies with their own hands, loading them onto trucks for burial in mass graves or to be burned on mass pyres, reckon they shifted at least 15,000 bodies.

Survivors, basing their estimates on the number of shrouds sold in the city, conservatively claim about 8,000 died in the first week. The official death to ll to date (local government figures) stands at more than 20,000 A 1990 study by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action found di-and trichlorobenzenes in water samples taken from wells being used by communities living near the factory fence lines, and phthalates, chlorinated benzenes and aromatic hydrocarbons in the soil samples taken from the SEPs. In 1996, the State Research Laboratory conducted its own tests on water and concluded that the chemical contamination found is “due to chemicals used in the Union Carbide factory that have proven to be extremely harmful for health. Therefore the use of this water for drinking must be stopped immediately.” Union Carbide Factory In 1999, Greenpeace and Bhopal community groups documented the presence of stockpiles of toxic pesticides (including Sevin and hexachlorocyclohexane) as well as hazardous wastes and contaminated material scattered throughout the factory site.

The survey found substantial and, in some locations, severe contamination of land and water supplies with heavy metals and chlorinated chemicals. Samples of groundwater from wells around the site showed high levels of chlorinated chemicals including chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, indicativ e of long-term contamination. Over the years, the groundwater supplying an estimated 20,000 Bhopal residents has become heavily contaminated by Union Carbide’s toxic by-products. Lead, nickel, copper, chromium, hexachlorocyclohexane and chlorobenzenes were also found in soil samples. Mercury in some sediment samples was found to be between 20,000 and 6 million times the expected levels. According to a 2002 study by the Fact Finding Mission on Bhopal, many of Union Carbide’s most dangerous toxins can now be found in the breast milk of mothers living around the factory. Yet Dow Chemical, Union Carbide's new owner, has suggested that the polluted, not the polluter, should pay for any cleanup. From the start, the medical response ranged from inadequate to catastrophic. On that night, hospital officials frantically called Union Carbide, seeking a treatment protocol.

When they finally got through, they were blithely assured that the gas which was killing thousands was “nothing more than a potent tear gas” and that victims merely had to “wash their eyes with water.” In a show of publicity as the bodies stacked up, Carbide flew a series of “top medical experts” to Bhopal to sing a chorus of reassurance. Dr. Hans Weil - reprimanded for unethical conduct by a US court for fudging medical data on behalf of the Johns-Manville corporation - predicted that ‘most victims would fully recover’. Pulmonary specialist Thomas Petty, also flown to Bhopal by Carbide, said that victims were ‘recovering rapidly’. No report made by Carbide-sponsored doctors was made available to the Indian government.“trade secret”. As a result, effective long-term medical treatment has been hampered. Even worse, the effects of the gases on future generations remains unclear even as health effects manifest themselves with disturbing regularity among the children of gas-exposed parents Since the disaster, the city has been plagued with an epidemic of cancers, menstrual disorders and what one doctor described as "monstrous births.” In the wake of the disaster, the survivors assembled to fight for justice.

In January 1985 a petition was circulated by Mr. Syed Irfan, leader of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha organization, and other survivors addressing the heads of the Madhya Pradesh government for medical and monetary aid. Few people were healthy enough after the disaster to do the sort of manual labor they had done beforehand. Many needed to be taught new crafts. The Indian Government initially set up lessons for survivors to learn trades, but did not provide decent jobs. The women at one stationary factory decided to unionize, forming the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahi la Stationary Karamchari Sangh or “Bhopal Gas-Affected Women’s Stationary Worker’s Union”. Led by future Goldman Award WinnersRashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, the union tried for months to negotiate with the government for decent wages. Finally, they marched from Bhopal to Delhi to petition the Prime Minister of India. It took them thirty-three days to reach Delhi, and even after having received some promises of support, little was done. Although the BGPMSKS struggle lasted for more than a decade, it was ultimately successful.

Meanwhile, the union became deeply involved in the broader campaign for justice in Bhopal, becoming one of four key survivors organizations to spearhead the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. In one of their first acts in the newly-formed ICJB, surv ivors protested against Dow’s purchase of Union Carbide by traveling to Dow’s Indian Headquarters in Mumbai. There they popped balloons filled with red paint to illustrate that Dow now has Bhopal’s blood on their hands. The only memorial ever built in Bhopal was privately funded, designed by the daughter of Holocaust victims. In bold letters, the inscription reads, “No Hiroshima, No Bhopal, We Want To Live.” Cause of the Bhopal Tragedy Cause of the Bhopal Tragedy Cause of the Bhopal Tragedy Print Union Carbide's Investigation A Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) investigation team arrived in Bhopal within days of the incident, but could not begin its investigation because the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken control of and sealed the plant; seized control of the plant’s records; and prohibited interviews of plant employees on duty the night of the incident.

What was known was that the methylisocyanate (MIC) unit had been shut down six weeks before the incident, and the MIC storage Tank 610 -- from which the gas was released -- had been isolated at that time. The UCC team was only permitted to take samples of the residue in Tank 610 and, after several months of extensive analyses, issued a report in March 1985. UCC’s initial investigation showed that a large volume of water had been introduced into the MIC tank and caused a chemical reaction that forced the pressure release valve to open and allowed the gas to leak. A committee of experts, working on behalf of the Indian government, conducted its own investigation and reached the same conclusion. The incident occurred despite the fact that the system had been designed and operated to keep out even trace amounts of water and that no water had ever entered any of the tanks during the five years the plant had been in operation. Cause Finally Determined For more than a year, the CBI prohibited interviews with plant employees and denied meaningful access to plant records. However, in December 1985, a U.S.

magistrate ordered the Government of India (GOI) to provide UCC with copies of plant records that had been seized. Moreover, the GOI could no longer restrict access to plant employees while it was before a U.S. court seeking discovery from UCC. Shortly after the gas release, UCC launched an aggressive effort to identify the cause. With access to employees and plant records, UCC investigators conducted more than 70 interviews in India and examined some 70,000 pages of plant records and documentation that the Indian government had reluctantly released. UCC's follow-up investigation confirmed its initial conclusion: a large volume of water had been introduced into the MIC tank. This caused a chemical reaction that forced the pressure release valve to open and allowed the gas to leak. Some two and a half years after the tragedy, UCC filed a lengthy court document in India detailing the findings of its scientific and legal investigations: the cause of the disaster was sabotage. Click here to view the Jackson Browning Report . The UCC’s investigation proved with virtual certainty that the disaster was caused by the direct entry of water into Tank 610 through a hose connected to the tank.

All of this was supported by hard evidence set forth in the presentation made by Ashok S. Kalelkar of Arthur D. Little, Inc. at The Institution of Chemical Engineers Conference on Preventing Major Chemical Accidents. Click here to view the Arthur D. Little Report. Early accounts of the disaster that focused on the GOI’s theory that water-washing caused the accident subsequently were disproved. Frequently Asked Questions About the Cause of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1. What caused the gas leak? A. Shortly after the gas release, UCC launched an aggressive effort to identify the cause. An initial investigation by UCC showed that a large volume of water had been introduced into the MIC tank. This caused a chemical reaction that forced the pressure release valve to open and allowed the gas to leak. A committee of experts working on behalf of the Indian government conducted its own investigation and reached the same conclusion. Some two and a half years after the tragedy, and only after the Indian government's reluctant release of some 70,000 pages of documentation, UCC filed a lengthy court document in India detailing the findings of its scientific and legal investigations: the cause of the disaster was undeniably sabotage.

Click here to view the Jackson Browning Report. UCC’s investigation proved with virtual certainty that the disaster was caused by the direct entry of water into Tank 610 through a hose connected to the tank. All of this was supported by hard evidence set forth in the presentation made by Ashok S. Kalelkar of Arthur D. Little, Inc. at The Institution of Chemical Engineers Conference. Click here to view the Arthur D. Little Report. 2. Who could have sabotaged plant operations and caused the gas leak? A. Investigations suggest that only an employee with the appropriate skills and knowledge of the site could have tampered with the tank. An independent investigation by the engineering consulting firm Arthur D. Little, Inc., determined that the water could only have been introduced into the tank deliberately, since process safety systems -- in place and operational -- would have prevented water from entering the tank by accident. 3. Were the valves faulty on the MIC tanks at the plant? A. No. In fact, documented evidence gathered after the incident showed that the valve near to the plant's water-washing operation was closed and leak-tight. Furthermore, process safety systems -- in place and operational -- would have prevented water from entering the tank by accident. 4.

Why didn’t the plant’s safety systems contain the leak? A. Based on several investigations, the safety systems in place could not have prevented a chemical reaction of this magnitude from causing a leak. In designing the plant's safety systems, a chemical reaction of this magnitude was not factored in for two reasons: The tank's gas storage system was designed to prevent such a large amount of water from being inadvertently introduced into the system; and Process safety systems -- in place and operational -- would have prevented water from entering the tank by accident. 5. How do you respond to concerns expressed about the technologies used at the plant prior to the incident? A. Contrary to allegations made by certain parties in various lawsuits, UCC did not design, construct or operate the Bhopal plant. And, most importantly, all of the decisions with respect to the plant and its design, construction, and operation were either made by UCIL or mandated by GOI policies and directives. In 1987, the U.S.

Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that "UCC’s participation was limited and its involvement in plant operations terminated long before the accident....the UOI [Union of India] controlled the terms of the agreements and precluded UCC from exercising any authority to 'detail design, erect and commission the plant,' which was done independently over the period from 1972 to 1980 by UCIL process design engineers....The preliminary process design information furnished by UCC could not have been used to construct the plant. Construction required the detailed process design and engineering data prepared by hundreds of Indian engineers, process designers and sub-contractors..." Please click here to read the U.S. Court of Appeals complete 1987 decision. Copyright 2001-2016, Union Carbide Corporation BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1984: Hundreds die in Bhopal chemical accident About This Site | Text Only 1984: Hundreds die in Bhopal chemical accident Hundreds of people have died from the effects of toxic gases which leaked from a chemical factory near the central Indian city of Bhopal.

The accident happened in the early hours of this morning at the American-owned Union Carbide Pesticide Plant three miles (4.8 km) from Bhopal. Mr Y P Gokhale, managing director of Union Carbide in India, said that methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) had escaped when a valve in the plant's underground storage tank broke under pressure. Mothers didn't know their children had died, children didn't know their mothers had died and men didn't know their whole families had died<br> Ahmed Khan, Bhopal resident<br> This caused a deadly cloud of lethal gas to float from the factory over Bhopal, which is home to more than 900,000 people - many of whom live in slums. Chaos and panic broke out in the city and surrounding areas as tens of thousands of people attempted to escape. More than 20,000 people have required hospital treatment for symptoms including swollen eyes, frothing at the mouth and breathing difficulties. Thousands of dead cats, dogs, cows and birds litter the streets and the city's mortuaries are filling up fast. Bhopal resident, Ahmed Khan, said: "We were choking and our eyes were burning.

We could barely see the road through the fog, and sirens were blaring. "We didn't know which way to run. Everybody was very confused. "Mothers didn't know their children had died, children didn't know their mothers had died and men didn't know their whole families had died." The Union Carbide factory was closed immediately after the accident and three senior members of staff arrested. Medical and scientific experts have been dispatched to the scene and the Indian government has ordered a judicial inquiry. It is understood the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, will be flying to the area within the next few days. In Context This was one of the world's worst industrial accidents. <br> Nearly 3,000 people died from the effects of the poisonous gas in the days following the disaster. <br> Estimates say that some 50,000 people were treated in the first few days suffering terrible side-effects, including blindness, kidney and liver failure. <br> Campaigners say nearly 20,000 others have since died from the effects of the leak. <br> Investigations into the disaster revealed that something had gone fundamentally wrong with a tank storing lethal methyl isocyanate (MIC).

<br> In 1989 Union Carbide, which is now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, paid the Indian Government £470m in a settlement which many described as woefully inadequate. <br> But in 1999 a voluntary group in Bhopal which believed not enough had been done to help victims, filed a lawsuit in the United States claiming Union Carbide violated international law and human rights. <br> In November 2002 India said it was seeking the extradition of former Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson from the US. <br> Mr Anderson faces charges of "culpable homicide" for cost-cutting at the plant which is alleged to have compromised safety standards. <br> In October 2004, the Indian Supreme Court approved a compensation plan drawn up by the state welfare commission to pay nearly $350m to more than 570,000 victims of the disaster.

<br> 8 Former Executives Guilty in ’84 Bhopal Chemical Leak - The New York Times The New York Times Asia Pacific |8 Former Executives Guilty in ’84 Bhopal Chemical Leak Search By LYDIA POLGREEN and HARI KUMAR JUNE 7, 2010 Correction Appended NEW DELHI — More than 25 years after a plume of fatal toxic gas from an American-owned chemical plant wafted over the slumbering city of Bhopal, eight former executives of the company’s Indian subsidiary — including one who has since died — were convicted Monday of negligence. The seven surviving defendants were sentenced to two years in prison and fined 100,000 rupees, or $2,100. They were the first criminal convictions from the leak at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, a central Indian city. The leak killed 3,000 people almost instantly, and thousands more died later from the aftereffects of the toxic gas , an ingredient in pesticides the plant produced. Victims groups and activists, who had sought more serious charges, criticized the verdict.

Death by negligence is most frequently used in deaths involving car accidents, they said. It carries a maximum two-year sentence. Satinath Sarangi, an advocate for the victims, characterized the verdict as “the world’s worst industrial disaster reduced to a traffic accident.” Photo A partially blind victim of the Union Carbide leak waited Monday for a verdict with other victims outside the court in Bhopal. Credit Prakash Hatvalne/Associated Press The defendants, all Indian citizens, were senior officials of the company at the time of the leak, India’s deadliest industrial disaster. The accident took place in December 1984 when a poisonous gas called methyl isocyanate leaked in the plant and spread over nearby slums. The eight convictions were announced after a bitter quarter-century-long court battle. Initially the defendants were charged with culpable homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but India’s Supreme Court reduced the charges. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Indian authorities tried unsuccessfully to prosecute Warren M. Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the leak. Mr. Anderson, now nearly 90, came to India after the disaster and was briefly arrested, then released on bail.

His bail expired years ago and he is considered an absconder by Indian courts. Keshub Mahindra, an Indian industrialist who was then chairman of Union Carbide India, the subsidiary, was convicted along with seven others. Activists and gas victims swarmed to the courtroom to hear the judgment. Hameeda Bi, whose granddaughter died 20 days after the gas leak, said that the sentence had been much too light and that the defendants should have received life sentences. Photo Bhopal gas tragedy survivors waited to hear the verdict outside outside court in Bhopal, India on Monday. Credit Sanjeev Gupta/European Pressphoto Agency “They killed thousands of people, and we fought for justice for 25 years,” Ms. Bi said. About 2,000 more deaths were attributed to the gas leak, and government records indicate that 578,000 people were affected. Union Carbide paid a $470 million settlement, with each victim getting an average of $550. Indian courts are notoriously slow. Jam-packed dockets and a shortage of judges can leave criminal cases hanging for years, or even decades.

High-profile cases often drag on for even longer, as skilled lawyers file endless motions and continuances while defendants remain out on bail. The accident site, in the middle of Bhopal, was given back to the state government. It still has 425 tons of hazardous waste that has yet to be cleared. Union Carbide was bought by Dow Chemical Company in 2001, and activists are seeking to get Dow to clean up the site. The Bhopal case has taken on new significance in recent months as India’s Parliament has been debating a law capping liability for foreign nuclear power companies operating in India. The law is essential to the civil nuclear technology agreement between India and the United States that brought India into the nuclear mainstream, despite its refusal to sign on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The law would cap foreign companies’ liability at little more than $100 million in the event of a disaster. Abdul Jabbar, an activist who survived the gas leak, said the sentence would encourage corporate impunity. “This judgment will not have any deterring impact on big companies,” he said.

“In fact it will tell them that you can get out of it so easily.” Correction: June 18, 2010 Because of an editing error, an article on June 8 about the convictions of eight former executives of a Union Carbide subsidiary in the 1984 chemical leak that killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, misidentified, in some editions, the source of pressure for a cleanup of the accident site by the Dow Chemical Company, which bought Union Carbide in 2001. Environmental activists — not the Indian government — are continuing to press for the cleanup of 425 tons of hazardous waste. Correction: June 7, 2010 Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly named Warren M. Anderson, a former chairman of Union Carbide, as one of the executives found guilty. It also misstated the number of people convicted and referred imprecisely to their employer. They were employees of Union Carbide India Limited, a subsidiary of Union Carbide.

A version of this article appears in print on June 8, 2010, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: 8 Former Executives Guilty In ’84 Bhopal Chemical Leak. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Bhopal disaster | industrial accident | Britannica.com industrial accident Bhopal disaster, chemical leak in 1984 in the city of Bhopal , Madhya Pradesh state, India . At the time, it was called the worst industrial accident in history. Victims of the Union Carbide chemical leak in Bhopal, India, wearing patches over their eyes, … AFP/Getty Images On December 3, 1984, about 45 tons of the dangerous gas methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant that was owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation . The gas drifted over the densely populated neighbourhoods around the plant, killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee Bhopal. The final death toll was estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000.

Some half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation or blindness, and other maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas; many were awarded compensation of a few hundred dollars. Investigations later established that substandard operating and safety procedures at the understaffed plant had led to the catastrophe . In 1998 the former factory site was turned over to the state of Madhya Pradesh. A portion of the remains of the former Union Carbide pesticide plant, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Daniel Berehulak—Getty Images News/Thinkstock In the early 21st century more than 400 tons of industrial waste were still present on the site. Neither the Dow Chemical Company , which bought out the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001, nor the Indian government had properly cleaned the site. Soil and water contamination in the area was blamed for chronic health problems and high instances of birth defects in the area’s inhabitants. In 2004 the Indian Supreme Court ordered the state to supply clean drinking water to the residents of Bhopal because of groundwater contamination.

In 2010 several former executives of Union Carbide’s India subsidiary—all Indian citizens—were convicted by a Bhopal court of negligence in the disaster. Continued corporate and government mishandling of the disaster sparked decades of protests by victims and others. Survivors of the 1984 deadly industrial accident in Bhopal, India, protesting in New Delhi in 2014 … Tsering Topgyal/AP Images The Bhopal disaster | Need to Know | PBS The Bhopal disaster June 8, 2010 Photo: AP Photo/Prakash Hatvalne Court rulings come slowly in India, a country known for its bureaucratic justice system. It has been nearly 26 years since toxic gas leaked from a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, initially killing more than 3,000 people and sickening hundreds of thousands more. On Monday, an Indian court convicted seven former top employees at the U.S. company’s Indian subsidiary for playing a part in the disaster. Each of the employees was sentenced to just two years in prison, according to the BBC, sparking outrage across the country.

Here are five things you need to know about the incident and its fallout, nearly three decades later: The chemical Methyl isocyanate is a colorless liquid used to produce pesticides. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , inhaling the chemical causes “tract irritation, difficulty breathing, blindness, nausea, gastritis, sweating, fever, chills, and liver and kidney damage.” Most of the immediate deaths in the Bhopal disaster were due to the build-up of fluids in the victims’ lungs. Exposure to methyl isocyanate also causes long-term damages to the lungs and the eyes. The ruling Activists and victims of the Bhopal disaster have protested the ruling, saying the Indian justice system took too long to arrive at an unsatisfying decision. In a statement , Audrey Gaughran, a director of Amnesty International, said, “Twenty-five years is an unacceptable length of time for the survivors of the disaster and families of the dead to have waited for a criminal trial to reach a conclusion.” The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal also wrote on its website that the trial took too long, and placed the blame for the disaster on U.S. executives.

The payout In 1989, Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the victims of the disaster and their families. That figure is less than 16 percent of the $3 billion dollars that the Indian government originally demanded in a lawsuit against the company. In Monday’s ruling, the seven convicted former employees were ordered to pay fines of 100,000 rupees (a little over $2,000) each. The fugitive While seven top Indian employees of Union Carbide were held accountable in the ruling, Warren Anderson, the CEO of the company at the time of the disaster, managed to elude the court system — literally. According to The Times of India , an Indian court declared Anderson “an absconder and a fugitive from justice” after he fled on bail to the U.S. to avoid prosecution. Anderson, now 89, lives in a million-dollar house on Long Island and refuses to return to India to face criminal charges. The aftermath Although the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal has long since shuttered, the site has not been properly cleaned or dismantled (Union Carbide became a part of Dow Chemical Company in 2001).

According to the BCC documentary “ The Curse of Bhopal ,” large parts of the factory remain intact, and toxic chemicals continue to leak into the population’s water supply. The Indian government estimates that the Bhopal disaster has been responsible for as many as 15,000 deaths to date. For more on the Bhopal disaster and its aftermath, see this and other segments from Worldfocus : Last modified: June 8, 2010 at 2:07 pm Bhopal Justice Page Background In the 1969, Union Carbide set up a plant in Bhopal, India, to manufacture pesticides. The facility was part of India's "Green Revolution" and industrialization policy. These pesticides were considered essential in the drive for agricultural self-sufficiency. Consolidation facilities proved to be profitable, so in 1979, an existing Union Carbide facility was chosen to produce and store a particularly dangerous and poorly understood chemical, methyl isocyanate (MIC). Export of chemicals of these types to the developing world is very common. Using the existing facility was both convenient and cost-effective, although it ignored significant health and safety concerns.

What happened on December 23, 1984, was what had to be the world's worst industrial disaster - often referred to as the Three Mile Island of the chemical industry. A result of technological, industrial, legal and human error, the incident took the loves of 2,500 people, and injured about 400,000, with the toll still rising to this day. A leak of the toxic MIC occurred that night when it reacted with a sizable volume of water that had made its way into the MIC storage tanks. Action by the staff and supervisors was too late to contain the leak, and forty tons of MIC flowed out of the tanks over two hours. And even if they had reacted immediately, the safety standards accepted at the plant would not have allowed them to do anything about it. Thus the methyl isocyanate gas escaped into the air and drifted eight kilometers downwind over the city of Bhopal, population 900,000, poisoning all in its path. The most seriously effected areas were those nearest the plant, the absolutely poorest sector of the population.

Key Actors The Indian Government The government of India got the ball rolling in Bhopal b pursuing "green revolution" tactics for increased agricultural yield and industrialization. This gave an open invitation for any interested multi-national corporation (MNC) to exploit and victimize the people of Bhopal. By not having appropriate laws in place, and by not monitoring the activities on MNC's within their borders, these companies were allowed to get away with murder. Once the leak occurred, the government immediately began suppressing the facts, afraid that any escaped information would be damaging to their industrialization aims. Sad to hear of the largest democracy on the planet. All investigation on the technical and managerial causes of the leak were prematurely terminated, and all information gathered by the government is classifies to this day. After half-heartedly taking Union Carbide to court in a civil case, the government sold-out their people and settled for a pittance of the original US$3 billion, a mere US$470 million. Among the other injustices to their people, the Indian government fails to address employment constraints of those affected by the leak, fails to provide adequate medical care for those affected, and has squandered much of the money settled on for compensation by Union Carbide.

Union Carbide Chemical Union Carbide , a major multi-national chemical corporation, is of course, equally at fault. They knowingly used a facility for the production and storage of MIC that was never meant to function in that capacity. In an effort to cut costs and prevent production delays, several safety systems in the already sub-standard facility were missing or disabled and were never addressed. Senior management at the plant knew there was a problem nearly an hour before the leak occurred, and emergency sirens were not sounded until an hour after the spill began, and the public was already being harmed. In an attempt to dodge liability for the lead, Union Carbide officially stated that the leak was the work of a disgruntled employee; and when that didn't work, they used their cargo trucks to haul away the dead bodies to play down the destruction of the incident. Finally, when brought to court in India in a civil suit, the company did all they could to, successfully, strong-arm the government to settle out of court. Afraid of offending the vital chemical industry, India, of course, folded. When charged with manslaughter and several other crimes by the Indian courts, the Senior Executives of Union Carbide went into hiding. At every turn Union Carbide actively evades justice.

On February 6, 2001 Union Carbide merged with a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. Dow purchased all of the shares of Union Carbide stock but Union Carbide continues to exist as a separate legal entity with its own assets and liabilities. Dec. 3, 1984: Bhopal Chemical Leak Kills Thousands in India Dec. 3, 1984: Bhopal Chemical Leak Kills… Precedents Dec. 3, 1984: Bhopal Chemical Leak Kills Thousands in India Posted Dec 01, 2012 06:50 am CST Tweet Shortly after midnight on Dec. 3, 1984, a flat, eerie cloud began to settle over the Indian city of Bhopal. The cloud was a plume of deadly methyl isocyanate leaked from a chemical plant located in the heart of the city. An estimated 2,000 people were killed almost instantly, most from asphyxiation and pulmonary edema. By morning, thousands more—many of them blind and debilitated—had collapsed in their homes or were writhing in the streets.

Years later, the official death toll was set at 3,823. The plant, owned by Connecticut-based Union Carbide, had manufactured pesticides since the late 1970s and was operated by an Indian subsidiary whose investors included the Indian government. When Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson arrived in India to assess the damage, he was placed under house arrest. But after posting bond, he was released and returned to the United States. Efforts to reach any substantial payout for Bhopal’s victims were delayed by litigation in both countries. In 1987, a U.S. appeals court affirmed a transfer of all Bhopal cases to India, ruling that Indian courts were better situated to distill what had become hundreds of thousands of claims. In 1989, Union Carbide reached a final settlement for $470 million. By 1993 there were more than 13,000 death claims and more than 630,000 demands for medical compensation—claims made even more complex by the medical complications of grinding poverty, political opportunism and the passage of time.

In 1992, the Bhopal district court asked for the extradition of Anderson to stand trial in India. Although Union Carbide maintained that a disgruntled employee had caused the accident, prosecutors also sought charges against executives of UC’s defunct Indian subsidiary. In June 2010, eight former UC officials were convicted of negligence and sentenced to two years in prison. Each was fined 100,000 rupees, about $2,100. Previous: Bhopal Survivors Demand Action | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community Bhopal Survivors Demand Action Bhopal Survivors Demand Action by Local activists attend a demonstration to mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in Bhopal December 3, 2009. The Union Carbide plant in the central city of Bhopal, now owned by Dow Chemical, left a potent legacy when it accidentally released toxic gases into the air, killing thousands of people and causing many more to suffer in the world's most deadly industrial disaster.

(REUTERS/Reinhard Krause) Hundreds of residents of the Indian city of Bhopal have held a vigil to mark 25 years since a deadly chemical leak in the city caused the world's worst industrial disaster. Survivors and local residents joined activists late on Wednesday to remember the thousands of victims of the leak from a pesticide plant owned by US chemical company Union Carbide on December 3, 1984. According to research conducted by the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, between 8,000 and 10,000 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. About 25,000 others later died from the effects of exposure while government estimates say the fumes affected half a million. Toxic legacy Activists say tens of thousands of people in Bhopal - many not even born at the time of the disaster - still suffer chronic illnesses related to the leak. Bhopal disaster Shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984, about 40 tonnes of the highly poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a tank at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal.

The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research says 8,000-10,000 people were killed within three days and 25,000 more subsequently died from the effects of exposure. More than 500,000 people are estimated to have been affected by the leak. US chemical firm Union Carbide says the leak was an act of sabotage by a disgruntled employee - never identified - and not lax safety standards or faulty plant design, as claimed by some activists. Union Carbide, owned by Dow Chemical, says the legal case was resolved in 1989 when it settled with the Indian government for $470m - compensation some activists say has not reached many victims. They say children born to parents exposed to the gas leak or poisoned by the contaminated water are suffering from cleft lips, missing palates, twisted limbs, varying degrees of brain damage and a range of skin, vision and breathing disorders. The state government says it has complied with a 2004 High Court order to clean up the waste at the site but critics say only a partial clearance of toxins was done.

Studies released on the eve of the anniversary said more than 350 tonnes of toxic waste strewn around the site still pollutes soil and groundwater in the area, leading to cancer, congenital defects, immunity problems and other illnesses. The UK-based charity Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA) said on Tuesday that there was evidence that "high levels of toxic chemicals" remained in the drinking water supply in 15 communities near the plant. Tests at Swiss and British laboratories indicated concentrations of some toxins were actually rising "as the chemicals leach through the soil and into the aquifer", it said. The group said the government was not providing enough clean drinking water, forcing many residents to use the contaminated groundwater. "Not surprisingly, the populations in the areas surveyed have high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness," BMA said in the report. A separate study also released on Tuesday by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), showed a hand-pump 3km from the former Union Carbide plant contained 110 times the maximum concentration of the pesticide carbaryl deemed safe in Indian bottled water.

Government denial The state government says residual chemicals in the ground are harmless and it is providing clean water to residents by tankers. It also dismisses assertions that the birth defects are related to the disaster. But the protesters gathered for Wednesday night's vigil disagreed, demanding the government clean up the chemical waste from the site and the drinking water in the area. They also called for an official panel to work on social, economic and medical rehabilitation for the gas victims, saying that only part of the $470m compensation Union Carbide paid in settlement with the Indian government has reached victims. Union Carbide, which ran the Bhopal plant when the leak occurred, is now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, having been bought in 2001. Dow says responsibility for the factory now rests with the Madhya Pradesh government. © 2009 Al-Jazeera Bhopal, India Poison Gas Leak Disaster, 1984 Updated July 26, 2015. What Was the Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India?

During the night of December 2-3, 1984, a storage tank containing methyl isocyanate (MIC) at the Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked gas into the densely populated city of Bhopal, India. Killing an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people, the Bhopal Gas Leak was one of the worst industrial accidents in history. Cutting Costs Union Carbide India, Ltd. built a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India in the late 1970s in an effort to produce pesticides locally to help increase production on local farms. However, sales of pesticide didn't materialize in the numbers hoped for and the plant was soon losing money. In 1979, the factory began to produce large amounts of the highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC), because it was a cheaper way to make the pesticide carbaryl. To also cut costs, training and maintenance in the factory were drastically cut back. Workers in the factory complained about the dangerous conditions and warned of possible disasters, but management did not take any action.

continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World The Storage Tank Heats Up On the night of December 2-3, 1984, something began to go wrong in storage tank E610, which contained 40 tons of MIC. Water leaked into the tank which caused the MIC to heat up. Some sources say that water leaked into the tank during routine cleaning of a pipe but that the safety valves inside the pipe were faulty. The Union Carbide company claims that a saboteur placed the water inside the tank, although there has never been proof of this. It is also considered possible that once the tank began to overheat, workers threw water on the tank, not realizing they were adding to the problem. The Deadly Gas Leak By 12:15 a.m. on the morning of December 3, 1984, MIC fumes were leaking out of the storage tank. Although there should have been six safety features that would have either prevented the leak or contained it, all six did not work properly that night.

It is estimated that 27 tons of MIC gas escaped out of the container and spread across the densely populated city of Bhopal, India, which had a population of approximately 900,000 people. Although a warning siren was turned on, it was quickly turned off again so as to not cause panic. Most residents of Bhopal were sleeping when the gas began to leak. Many woke up only because they heard their children coughing or found themselves choking on the fumes. As people jumped up from their beds, they felt their eyes and throat burning. Some choked on their own bile. Others fell to the ground in contortions of pain. People ran and ran, but they did not know in which direction to go. Families were split up in the confusion. Many people fell to the ground unconscious and were then trampled upon. The Death Toll Estimates of the death toll vary greatly. Most sources say at least 3,000 people died from immediate exposure to the gas, while higher estimates go up to 8,000. In the two decades following the night of the disaster, approximately 20,000 additional people have died from the damage they received from the gas.

Another 120,000 people live daily with the effects from the gas, including blindness, extreme shortness of breath, cancers, birth deformities, and early onset of menopause. Chemicals from the pesticide plant and from the leak have infiltrated the water system and the soil near the old factory and thus continue to cause poisoning in the people who live near it. The Man Responsible Just three days after the disaster, the chairman of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was arrested. When he was released on bail, he fled the country. Although his whereabouts were unknown for many years, recently he was found living in the Hamptons in New York. Extradition procedures have not started because of political issues. Anderson continues to be wanted in India for culpable homicide for his role in the Bhopal disaster. The Company Says They Are Not to Blame One of the worst parts of this tragedy is actually what has happened in the years following that fateful night in 1984. Although Union Carbide has paid some restitution to the victims, the company claims they are not liable for any damages because they blame a saboteur for the disaster and claim that the factory was in good working order before the gas leak.

The victims of the Bhopal gas leak have received very little money. Many of the victims continue to live in ill health and are unable to work.

Question: Which chemical company caused a chemical leak in the Indian city of Bopal?
Answer: UNION CARBIDE